1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique for determining a user default printer.
2. Related Art
There is a technique for selecting a printing device that can print a job from among a plurality of available printing devices on the basis of the operational status or location of each of the plurality of available printing devices and distributing the job (see, for example, JP-A-2000-259375).
A print job typically depends on the model of a printing device. When different models of printing devices are available, it is necessary to select in advance a printing device that corresponds to the print job, that is, that can perform printing based on the print job, (hereinafter referred to as a “job handling printer”).
A structure that determines a printing device selected as a job handling printer by default when a print job of a user is generated (hereinafter referred to as a “user default printer”) using criteria in the technique described above in a condition that different models of printing devices are available will be discussed below.
In cases where a user default printer is determined based on the operational status of each of printing devices, even when a user wishes to use a printing device A, a printing device B may be determined as the user default printer depending on the operational status. In this case, because the print job of the user is generated so as to conform to the printing device B, the print job cannot be output from the printing device A, which is of a different model from the printing device B. This is highly inconvenient to the user, who wishes to use the printing device A.
In cases where a user default printer is determined based on the location of each of printing devices, for example, a printing device nearest to a client terminal is selected as the user default printer, a similar problem arises because a specific printing device is linked with the client terminal as a user default printer in a fixed relation thereto. For example, it is assumed that client terminals A and B are linked with different models of printing devices A and B, respectively, as a user default printer. Under these circumstances, even when a user intends to use the printing device A, a print job based on a print instruction is generated so as to conform to the printing device B as long as the print instruction is issued from the client terminal B, so the print job cannot be output from the printing device A, which is a different model from the printing device B. This is also inconvenient to the user.
In particular, in a thin client system, in which a client terminal has minimum functions and a server executes application software and file management, the above problem caused by linking a specific printing device with a client terminal as a user default printer surfaces more greatly because a user will use different client terminals at different locations.
One approach to avoiding a problem in which a user default printer differs from a printing device that a user wishes to use is to display a list of device names of available printing devices or other information at a client terminal and to enable a user to select a his/her user default printer from the list.
However, in most cases, locations and functions of printing devices are not identified from only information on device names. Therefore, even with a structure of enabling a user to select a user default printer from a list of device names, it is difficult to select an appropriate user default printer in consideration of locations and functions.